


"All I Wanted to Know Was How to Live In It"

by AgentCoop



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ash Lynx Lives, Ash and Eiji are in love, Bank Robbery, Cute Okumura Eiji, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Magical Realism, The rabbit and the kitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 22:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18455891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCoop/pseuds/AgentCoop
Summary: This is the story of two boys who discovered a magic between them.This is the story of two bank robbers who loved each other and who wanted to change the world.This is the story of two lovers who lay wrapped in each other’s arms in the depth of night and let the heaviness of silence steal their breath away.This is the story of how two boys saved each other.





	"All I Wanted to Know Was How to Live In It"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Serya_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serya_chan/gifts).



> Thanks all so much for reading! This is based on just a fantastic idea that [Serya_chan](http://twitter.com/Serya_chan/)  
> had, and she was sweet enough to let me write it!
> 
> (And the title is from a Hemingway quote :) )
> 
> Follow me on [Tumblr](http://iamagentcoop.tumblr.com/)  
> or on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/agentcoop1)  
> 

And just as soon as the early morning sunrise was obscured by clouds, and as the rain began to fall (in that slightly anticipatory pitter-patter of children’s tales), they allowed themselves a quiet moment of reflection at the top of the marble stairs.

This too, was broken, like so many of their moments were, by the boyish glee the character in the rabbit mask demonstrated in falling down on one knee, reaching out a hand, grasping the left hand of the character in the cat mask, and breaking into song.

_“Butterfly, kyou wa ima made—”_

“Jesus Christ, Eiji, can we at least get to the getaway car before you propose your undying love for me?”

“Never,” Eiji said. “I refuse to be anything less then undying in my aeration for you. Especially when you are robbing banks and wear very cute kitty cat masks.”

Ash cocked his head. “Pretty sure you mean admiration. What the hell are they teaching you in that online class?”

“How to rob banks with precision and finesse,” Eiji replied. He tried to stick his tongue out, but he was wearing a mask, and as such, he only ended up licking plastic.

From somewhere in the distance, a wailing sound could be heard over the dancing of the water at their feet. “Yep,” Ash announced. “Time to jet!” He pulled Eiji up, and they ran down the steps, then disappeared around the corner.

If you had been watching while this happened, you may have been vaguely concerned as to what two young people of any sort were doing with two very full canvas bags at the top of the bank steps. 

If you had been watching while this happened, you may have noticed the silently flashing red strobe light that flickered from within the empty building and lit the marble steps that the two were on in some sort of chaotic glow.

If you had been watching while this happened, you may have been curious as to why, when their feet hit the puddles on their hurried descent down the steps, the water was not displaced, was not splashed, was not moved in any sort of way that rain water should be moved were it interrupted by something so solid as a canvas tennis shoe clad foot.

Let’s rewind.

***

As was the nature of most worldly matters, the rich become richer, the poor become poorer and the middle class soak in their mediocrity. This was an acceptable balance to maintain as most were never prone to wishful thinking.

Some, however, were particularly drawn to imagination and the concept of balance, and perhaps, even stranger, the desire for supernatural. The world was out of sync, and sometimes it needed a little magic to fall back into place.

It happened for the first time on a normal afternoon, during a normal fall rain shower, while sitting together in a mostly normal sort of way. Ash was splayed on the worn couch, sneakers propped willfully upon the nicked and craggy wooden coffee table. Eiji was perched on the floor, as was their usual arrangement. Eiji reached out and wound his fingers through the finger’s of Ash’s gently draped hand and this prompted a static shock between them that surprised both, but wasn’t enough to disengage in the familiar contact that was palm of hand pressed against palm of hand.

“Oh,” Eiji said.

And at the same time, Ash announced “Do you believe in magic?”

Eiji looked at him, curious. “I believe in you.”

Ash reached out his free hand and plucked at the air, as though tugging at the seam of an invisible purse. “You,” he announced coyly, “are ridiculous.”

Eiji merely pressed his lips to the back of Ash’s hand and smiled. “I believe in you,” he whispered again, against the smooth skin of Ash’s wrist. Then he looked up and watched as Ash kept motioning at the space surrounding them. First a pull, then a push, then a slight wave, then another pull. His fingers slipped into an invisible space, and he closed his eyes. “Ash?” Eiji murmured.

Then, gently, he withdrew his hand. Sitting in his palm was a grown starling. It looked unkempt, as though it had just been plucked from an imaginary landscape and forced to present itself to two gawking humans.

It _had_ just been plucked from an imaginary landscape and was being keenly studied by two gawking humans.

“Do you know the story of Robin Hood?” Ash asked, not taking his eyes off of the perturbed bird that was pecking at his fingertips.

“I do not think so,” Eiji said. He too, was still captured by the realness of the animal. “Tell me?”

And so Ash did.

***

They started simply. Pressing into the voided space, wiggling fingers around until they were able to grasp something solid, then pulling it out and admiring their mutual aesthetic of ‘distressingly handsome young men who are now able to produce bits and pieces of worldly matter from thin air.”

They quickly learned that the location they reached in, influenced the material they came out with. The first starling in Ash’s apartment was actually quite easily explained, (though the baby birds in the nest outside his window didn’t seem to find the humor in the situation as he gently dumped their mother back in with them.) The nest was three feet from where they sat on that cool, fall day, and therefore, the bird was within grasping distance.

If they reached through the void close to the library, they could end up with all sorts of uniquely boring items. Ash insisted on returning these promptly though, as if the Gods of Inter-Library Loans were already planning a massacre in his name.

They had a delightful afternoon of loitering in the outside alley of a scummy looking Lovers Lane. Ash insisted on pulling toys and videos and exemplary literature from the shelves while Eiji tugged at his arm, red faced and humiliated as the pile of horrifyingly naughty merchandise grew at their feet. In the end, they walked home, arms full of sex objects, and in the way of teenage boys, they tossed most of their collection at all manner of unsuspecting people and laughed as though the warmth of the Indian summer day would never fade.

It was weeks later when Ash circled back to the Robin Hood tale. “We could be like them, you know,” he said, eyes sparkling as he sank his teeth into a pair of edible underwear. “Steal from the rich and give to the poor.”

Eiji watched him, stone faced, as he took another bite. “I very much hope that you do not think that those are your daily allotment of fruits and vegetables.”

“Strawberry flavored,” Ash said, licking his lips. “It counts. And nice word, allotment.What do you think, though? Helping folks?”

“I think that stealing is going to hurt someone, no matter how hard we are trying to help,” Eiji responded. But even as he did so, he ran a hand through his hair, placing the strands exactly right for one small moment before they fell back into his eyes. 

“And I think that mafia controlled banks are hurting far more someones then we ever will,” Ash stated primly. “No one’s guiltless.”

“Yeah,” Eiji agreed. “Yeah. Ok, yes. Let’s rob a bank!”

Ash grinned “You’re weak willed, you know?”

“And you are going to be the first human to die of scurvy since the 1800s,” Eiji countered, leaning forward and ripping the disgusting, filmy, sweets from Ash’s hand. Then he kissed him, quickly, perfunctorily, as though they had lived a thousand years of kisses and had a thousand years left to go. “You taste like sugar,” Eiji said, sitting back down again.

“Thanks, honey,” Ash replied.

But he smiled, and Eiji smiled, and all around them the air shimmered with anticipation.

***

This is the story of two boys who discovered a magic between them.

This is the story of two bank robbers who loved each other and who wanted to change the world.

This is the story of two lovers who lay wrapped in each other’s arms in the depth of night and let the heaviness of silence steal their breath away.

This is the story of how two boys saved each other.

***

The bank robbing was easy. Show up, dodge potential security guard threats, reach into the void and pull out bills by the hundreds. Then run, funnel the money into the many offshore accounts that Ash managed to control with the help of a certain tall, dark and handsome Kazakh, and finally fall into each other’s arms with glee and delightful childlike innocence. 

Then they would plan the next.

The Internet referred to them as the ‘ _Bank Ghosts,_ ’ and the ‘ _Fingerless Thieves_ ,’ and sometimes even ‘ _Scourge Upon this Earth._ ” 

Ash was particularly fond of this last title. He prided himself on his scourging abilities. 

Still they continued, channeling stolen mafia money into trust funds for victims, into charities, into soup kitchens of New York. It became a routine then, that at the end of every heist, Eiji would drop to one knee, sing Kaela Kimura’s _Butterfly_ in a god awful voice, and ask Ash for his hand in marriage. Everytime, Ash would laugh, and they would dash away again.

When winter came, their footsteps left no prints in the snow. 

“More magic?” Eiji questioned.

“The void is swallowing us whole,” Ash replied.

This was a heartbreaking thought, a product of Ash’s frequent episodes of depression and self hatred. Eiji merely smiled and placed a hand on Ash’s cheek. “I love you,” he said.

“The void has given me you,” Ash said in return.

And this was good enough. This was all he’d ever needed.

***

If you’d been there on the morning of their last robbery, and watched the way the masked figures grasped hands as they lept and sprung down marble steps, you might have wondered if they were happy.

If you’d been there on the morning of their last robbery and you’d seen the way the wind swept one boy’s golden locks outward, and the way the other boy’s hand flattened them back behind the rubber band of a kitten mask, you might have thought they were meant for this moment.

If you’d been there on the morning of their last robbery, you’d have watched the rabbit pull on the kitten’s hand, and whisper something in the kitten’s ear. You’d have seen the boys raise the masks and look at each other for one long moment as sirens rang out from miles away. You’d have seen the smile that bloomed on one boy’s face and passed all the way across to the other’s, and you’d have known that this was love, and this was everything, and this was what it was to be alive. 

 


End file.
